TRAVEL NEWS

6 injured in karaoke lounge bomb attacks in southern Thailand

7 November 2006, BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - Six people, including two police officers and four civilians, were wounded as bomb explosions tore through two karaoke lounges in a hotbed of the Muslim insurgency in southern Thailand, police said Sunday.

The homemade bombs exploded within minutes of each other Saturday night at lounges in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat province, scene of an anti-government rally two years ago in which 85 Muslim protesters died at the hands of security forces, said police Lt. Thepsin Sahadhud.
Police rushed to the scenes of the explosions when another homemade bomb planted on the roadside exploded, Thepsin said.

"The third bomb was apparently targeted at police but fortunately no one was injured from the third bomb," he said.

One bomb was hidden under a sofa in the James Bond lounge, injuring two police officers, while the second went off at the Regency Karaoke lounge, located about 50 metres away, police said. Four persons were hurt in the second lounge.

In a separate incident late Saturday, Doming Mudo, 45, a local administration official, was shot dead in Pattani province, said police Col. Somchit Nasomyon.

More than 1,800 persons have died over the last three years in the southernmost provinces of Thailand, where radical Muslim rebels are fighting for a separate homeland from the Buddhist-dominated country.

The interim government of Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont has promised to bring peace to the south, using reconciliation rather than the suppression tactics practised by the toppled government of Thaksin Shinawatra.

Source: www.canada.com

See Other News >>